New Nordic Cuisine Extreme – High and fresh

Poul Andrias Ziska
KOKS ★ Tórshavn, Faeroe Islands
„Best Nordic Restaurant“
Some of the foods that the descendants of the Vikings serve up seem a touch scary to central Europeans. Ram’s heads and fish are fermented in tiny huts until they develop a smell that Nordic men have learned to love, while olfactory senses more accustomed to southerly herbs are quite likely to feel assaulted. Popular dishes here include whale meat and its blubber, giblet sausages, sea fowl like gulls or fulmar, also fantastic scallops and plump sea urchins. Straight from the sea – unbeatably fresh. Poul Adrias Ziska, the youthful chef in the restaurant KOKS, gladly incorporates all of these things and diligently continues his research to make even more of the country’s resources accessible. In doing so he consistently blends the Viking traditions with the ideas and techniques proposed in New Nordic Cooking. A dainty snack disguises itself as a cheese cracker, but the spread is made of fermented fat from lamb’s tripe. Hung for months, a ham made of lamb is served simply and without any frills. The scallops come the same way, presented to the guest unprepared with just a knife to prise open the shells. Ziska frequently conceals the dish below a layer of herbs, cress or vegetables. Underneath the guests discover raw cod, swimming crabs or petrel. All of them present exciting experiences and uniquely flavoursome compositions.koks.fo